“And God has appointed in the church…

1 Corinthians 12:28a

The Corinthians were divided over the use of miraculous spiritual gifts within their ranks due to jealously desiring the gift of speaking in tongues more than any other (12:1-11; 14:1-40).  Paul corrected their mistaken view of spiritual gifts by first pointing out that as members of Christ’s church, all of them “are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (12:27; cf. Eph. 1:22-23; Col. 1:18).  Each of them as members of Christ’s body were needed for the work of the church, regardless of which spiritual gift they possessed, just as we as human beings need each part of our physical bodies in order for our bodies to function to their highest potential (12:12-26).  Paul now continues his point:  “And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, administering, and various kinds of tongues” (12:28).

While “apostles” (apostolos, “one sent out,” a delegate or messenger) was sometimes used in the New Testament to refer to Christians like Barnabas, Silvanus, and Timothy “sent out” to preach the gospel as missionaries (e.g., Acts 13:2-3; 14:4, 14; 1 Thess. 1:1; 2:6), the term is primarily used to refer to the twelve apostles who were originally chosen by Jesus out of all his disciples (minus Judas, plus Matthias [Acts 1:21ff], as well as Paul [1 Cor. 15:8-10]) to be “sent out” to “make disciples of all the nations” and “teach them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matt. 10:1-5ff; 28:19-20; cf. Acts 2:42).  Paul cites apostles first in this list of “appointments” (tithemi, placements, establishments, ordainments, gifts) in the church because the twelve apostles and Paul had authority throughout all the church via their Holy Spirit-inspired teaching (Matt. 10:20, 40; 16:19; 18:18; John 13:20; 16:12-15; 20:22-23; Acts 2:4; Eph. 2:19-21; 3:3-5; 1 Cor. 2:6-16; cf. 1 Thess. 2:6; Philemon 8).

“Prophets” (prophetes, “one through whom God speaks”) are placed next to “apostles” on the list because they joined the apostles in providing the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:19-21; 3:3-5) due to teaching God’s doctrine either through the miraculous spiritual gift of prophecy (12:8-11; 14:1-3, 5, 39) or through the preaching of God’s Word in a non-miraculous sense (2 Tim. 4:1-2).  “Teachers” (didaskalos, “instructors”) are placed alongside apostles and prophets because they too provided the early church with instruction from God, either through miraculous spiritual gifts of knowledge and wisdom (12:8-11) or through non-miraculous instruction from Scripture (2 Thess. 2:15; 1 Tim. 4:11, 13; 6:2).  “Miracles” and “gifts of healing” are next on the list because performing miracles like reading minds (Acts 5:1-11) or healing the lame by declaration (Acts 3:1-11) would have confirmed the message taught by the apostles, prophets and teachers to be authentically from God (Mk. 16:20; Heb. 2:1-4).

Paul then lists two non-miraculous “appointments” or ordainments within the church.  “Helping” (antilempsis, offering aid or assistance) and “administering” (kybernesis, steering, piloting, directing) are thought by some to refer to the various tenets of church government, with “helping” referring to the service deacons provide to Christians (cf. Acts 6:1-6) and “administering” pointing to the oversight given to the church by elders (cf. Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:1-4).  Closing out the list, Paul then returns to the miraculous by citing “various kinds of tongues” (genos glossa, diversities or different kinds of languages), specifically the numerous languages spoken throughout the world in varying countries and cultures (cf. Acts 2:4-11).  When we remember that the Corinthians’ misunderstanding of the purpose behind miraculous spiritual gifts stems from their misplaced desire to all speak in tongues, it’s significant that the apostle puts it at the very end of the list, even going to far as give higher importance to two non-miraculous ordainments within the church.

The apostle then rhetorically points out that not everyone in the church has these miraculous spiritual gifts (12:29-30), his point being that the Corinthians should, rather than collectively covet the comparatively less important gift of speaking in tongues, instead together “earnestly desire the higher gifts” (12:31a; cf. 14:1-5, 39).  Indeed, Paul knows that there is “a still more excellent way” on which they should walk (12:31b), a better goal to work towards than to focus on which miracle they can perform.

That goal is love (13:1-13), and we will study it next week, Lord willing.

— Jon